Ergh
The good: I’m done with the IT paper, presentation and Microecon exam.
The bad: I just accidentally deleted 90% of my emails. Oh well, there will be more I’m sure.
2 CommentsMost frightening
Tomorrow is considered the most frightening/haunted/spooky day of the year. Blah blah blah. It is downright scary for me. I have a team paper and presentation due tomorrow at 8:30 plus a Micro Econ midterm at 1:30. Fun fun. I had a take-home accounting exam over the weekend and I dropped it off at 8:30 this morning. I’ll still have a lot of assignments due on Wednesday, but tomorrow night should not be nearly as stressful as the last few days have been. Ugh.
I need to study but I am clearly procrastinating. Okay, time to end this post. Wish me luck!
midterms shmidterms
I had my first midterm on Tuesday. It was for my favorite class, IT. This weekend, I have a take-home midterm in accounting which is due on Monday morning. On Tuesday, I have a ten-page group paper and 20 minute presentation to do as well as a microeconomics midterm. After that, I get a six day break before my statistics midterm. You would think that this would give me a break but it is not to be. I still have homework due for almost every single class. Normally, this would be fine except that my brain is nearly fried from studying for my exams.
In other news, my neck and shoulders are so stiff I feel like my arms are going to break off at the joints. Who’s that stumpy girl on campus? Oh that’s Sarah. She just finished her accounting midterm. She stood up to turn in her exam and her arms broke off.
Seriously, I need to stretch out or something. Or, as my 7th grade gym coach would tell us, “walk it off!”
The next week
is going to be hell. Midterms start tomorrow and end two weeks from today. I’m glad they’re spread out somewhat but that just means that I need to factor in extra study time on top of my regular coursework. It is possible but it won’t be pretty.
Not much else is going on. I studied this weekend and got some reading out of the way. I’m constantly impressed with folks who can churn out work a week in advance. They must be studying machines. I can get ahead slightly but I usually just do what I can to understand that material for the next day. This is probably caused by the fact that my team projects are due now instead of at the beginning of December. If I had a choice, I’d still choose to do them now and then focus on finals later.
Well, that’s enough fun rambling (procrastination) for one day.
In Nintendo news, Danny beat Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on Saturday. He is now playing Magnetica.
I’m not dead yet!
Yes, I’m nerdy enough to post a Python reference.
This week has been much easier than last week. I have midterms starting next week and a ten page paper due on the 31st, but I think it is all doable. Plus, the paper is a team effort and it’s on an interesting topic.
One thing that’s become apparent to me over the last three weeks is that people have very different study styles and that trying to merge these styles can be difficult. From what I gather, most folks push through the tough reading and questions in order to get as much done as possible in the shortest amount of time. I’d love to be able to do that but I’m not good at sitting for hours on end and forcing myself to hunt for the answers. I only do this when it is 4am and my paper is due at 9 or when I’m really far behind and I’m playing catch-up. When I have time, I really try to come up with the best answer, even if it takes me a few tries. I’m not saying that other folks don’t do this, but I work best when I can step away from the problem for at least 10 minutes and then hit the problem again from another angle. Plus, I’ve discovered that even if I do finish my work in record time, I inevitably end up going back to fix a problem I “pushed through” too quickly. I don’t have a problem spending extra time on an assignment as long as I can have breaks to “wake up my brain.”
Anyway, sometimes it’s hard for me to just sit down and “do the work.” This has proved difficult for me in team situations. I’ve found that the best way for me to deal is a method that was recommended by one of my teammates: have everyone just take 20 minutes to work on their own and then reopen the discussion. I know, it’s not a flashy solution but it gives me a chance to think in silence.
Okay, back to work. More on this thrilling analysis later.
Down the hatch
How do you know when you’re in grad school or how do you know when things that were unacceptable are now fine as long as you show up to class on time and turn in your work?
Exhibit A: eating nutella from the jar is an acceptable snack
Exhibit B: Your socks don’t match but your jeans are long enough that no one will notice. Probably.
Exhibit C: You only pack cold lunches because you don’t have time to microwave them before running off to the next meeting/class.
Exhibit D: You check your class schedule daily because you just can’t remember if one or two days have passed since the weekend.
Exhibit E: You ask your husband how his weekend was even though you were in the same house the entire time.
Long time coming
Sorry for the lack of posts lately. This was a very long week. It was a good week but it was very long. My team had a group presentation due today and we had to redo parts of it less than two days before the deadline.
I felt like our presentation went well and that we hit most of the major points. I’ve done individual presentations before, but getting five very different people to agree on the content and structure of a twenty-minute presentation is really really hard. My group has the brains and the heart, but we’re still working on efficiency. I think that most of our time was well-spent, but we still had some very long meetings and lots of “starting over” time.
I feel really lucky to have such dedicated and creative team members. For me, if someone has an idea that I don’t fully endorse, it’s hard for me to say no because I really don’t want to hurt their feelings in any way. I mean, this is my team. We spend at least thirty hours a week together either in class or in meetings. I think we’re doing very well considering that we’ve only been in the program for two weeks but we still have a long way to go. I have the feeling that we’ll be a killer thinking machine right before the end of the quarter….when we have to mix up the teams.
Alright, I have a nagging headache and I’m going to bed. I have lots of homework but at least I can still sleep late tomorrow. I can handle accounting after a solid 10 hours of sleep.
Konbanwa, buenas noches, and good night.
Getting the hang of it
I think I’m getting the hang of it. This may be a totally premature assumption, but I somehow managed to have much more free time this weekend than I did last weekend. I had the same amount of work, but the crippling self-doubt was less debilitating this time around. Who knew?
I’m feeling better about things though. I’m not an idiot and classwork is starting to make some sense (I’m looking at you accounting). I think I’ll be fine until midterms roll around and that’s in what, a month? I can deal.
Random: People who are from Seattle love asking me if I like the weather. I smile and say “Yes! I love it!” What else am I supposed to say?
I really do love the weather though. When I worked in San Francisco, my favorite days were the misty, cold, and rainy ones. It made me want to stay inside, sip some hot tea, listen to good music, and read. It was very cozy. Even though I’m doing homework instead of browsing the Sunday classifieds, it is still cozy to be indoors wrapped up in a fleece jacket.
The shape of things to come
This is the title of an episode of one of my favorite TV shows, the new Battlestar Galactica on SciFi. I’m not a total SciFi nerd, but this is a good freaking show. Season three premiers tomorrow night and I’m ready for a little space drama after seven months of waiting.
I thought about this phrase as I was looking at my schedule for next week. My team has a very important, very structured presentation due on Friday in addition to our regular homework and club meetings. Just to give you a taste of what my schedule has been like lately, here’s what I expect to do on Monday.
7:30-10:30am - meet with team to review weekend homework and discuss strategy for upcoming presentation
10:30-12:30 - statistics
12:30-1:30 - eat lunch in ten minutes and then attend a lunchtime meet-and-greet with a major national company
1:30-3:30 - team meeting #2
3:30-5:30 - accounting class
5:30-7:30 - work on homework in library; eat something sometime.
7:30 - go home, eat dinner with Danny, shower, study until 12:30 and hopefully go to bed soon thereafter.
Yes, the schedule is packed. However, the material and the group projects are both interesting. I’ve only almost fallen asleep in class once.
Before we started, the second-year students told us how we wouldn’t sleep, we’d constantly be stressed out and that we’d randomly pass out while reading. We smiled and shuddered inside. I’m not shuddering, but I’m accepting it and just trying to cram as much knowledge into my brain as I can before complete weariness sets in.
Is it madness or exhaustion? Probably some of both
I’m tired. I’m almost crazy tired, like how you feel after staying up all night. Stringing together words into coherent sentences is extremely challenging.
I have so much work to do. Tonight was easy. I only had four hours of work. As time goes on, I’ll probably become more efficient at churning out homework but for now it’s painstakingly slow.
Despite the amount and difficulty of the work, I’m enjoying myself immensely. With the exception of one class, I like my courses very much. The teachers are good at what they do. At the end of each class, the students say Thank You. How often does that happen? “Thank you sir for giving me work that kept me up until 2am. When can I have more?”
The discussions are really fun. I used to be a total wallflower in class but now I speak up as often as I can without sounding like an annoying little overachiever.
The best thing though is working with a group of students who want to be there. I’ve worked in teams before that did not care what the outcome of the project was or how quickly they could accomplish their goals. The amount of knowledge and motivation put forth by the students is inspiring.
The downside is that I get home at a decent time, but I hole up in the bedroom to read and study. Danny has his hobbies but I think he’s ready to get his wife back for more than an hour at a time.
The cats, however, are thrilled. They can sit on the bed with me for hours and nobody moves.
This weekend shouldn’t be too bad. I only have three homework assignments and no massive amount of reading; you know, easy.